The Curious Goings-on At Crosswire Labs
by 5etharama
Summary: A griefer on the run. A dangerous, slightly sadistic, possibly crazy and very well equipped Enderling. Despite all their differences, the two must work together to defeat an enemy like no other. But no amount of redstone can defeat an enemy of the mind... T for slight maliciousness.
1. Chapter 1

**This story started out as a oneshot, but I really enjoyed writing it so I continued it. I'll be updating it as my main story, with HUGELY LONGISH CHAPTERS unlike Amnesia. :D I originally made it to better describe me, or my Minecraft avatar, my Enderling. *Strokes 5eth plushie* preshusss... Randomness lol.  
**

**The points of view can get a bit confusing, but basically there's you and there's me. And there may be others in the future, but that is for me to know and you to find out...**

You run through the deep, dark forest. Legs and arms moving in a crazy manner, swinging your trusty Flame IV iron sword back and forth ridiculously. Mushrooms red and brown whiz past you, as you try to escape the admins that are surely after hot on your heels. Deciding that you have run far enough, you stop and look back. They are not there. L0N3_WARR10R and solosurviver, the main admins on this server, are notorious for giving up. The server itself:

Runcraft

The server where banning is banned!

Nomming on some porkchops, you begin to start your life again. Chopping down trees with your Efficiency II Unbreaking III iron axe, you freeze. Having collected just under a stack of wood, you suddenly realise you can hear pistons. Pulling out your sword again, you slowly creep forwards, hunched over, knowing unless you are in direct sight you will be invisible. Continuing forwards, you come to a clearing. In the centre is a modest dwelling, with a cobblestone frame, wooden planks in between, and glass panes for windows, and two floors. There is a small fenced off area with some animals, and another containing a farm. You go up to it, and harvest the pumpkins and melons, destroying the stalks. You ARE a griefer, after all. Destroying the wheat, you make some cookies from his mysterious person's cocoa, and chomp on them. You sigh as the delicious, perfectly made cookie melts on your tongue, and think of your dream job as a baker. If only times were better... But you mustn't get distracted. The owner of the house must be away, and you begin to go towards the aforesaid dwelling, with increased curiosity about the sound of pistons, getting louder and louder.

As you enter the house, you see a double chest, a crafting table, a bed, four furnaces and a chair with a fence post two blocks in front of it. You go and open the chest, and gasp at its contents. Inside are mining spoils, several stacks of coal, a stack of iron blocks, 9 gold blocks, 4 diamond blocks and 27 lapis lazuli blocks. Why was a person so rich living in a dwelling so small? Then you see the small hole in the corner. There is a ladder there, which you descend down, pulling out your sword. Reaching the bottom, once again you gasp. There is an intricate jumping puzzle, with pistons pushing out more blocks to jump from periodically, and it all over lava. Wondering what is on the other side, you leap towards the closest block, an upside-down stone slab. You jump to another block, then quickly sprint-jump to the next when you realise it is a piston-operated one. Jumping from block to block, slightly nervous about the lava that would burn you to death if you fell, you eventually reach the other side. There is a sign there above a tunnel, saying:

Why didn't you

just use the

tunnel?

You look back and see just to the right of the entrance there is a small, dark hole, obviously the origin of this tunnel. You smirk at the dry humour, knowing the mysterious owner of this house will be laughing on the other side of his face soon. Going through another tunnel labelled "entry" you find yourself in a large-ish room. In the middle of the room is a seat crafted from wooden stairs, with several levers in the arms. In the chair is sat a player.

"Hello" he says, with a smirk. He has a slightly British accent, making him seem quite official. He is quite tall, taller than you, with long, thin limbs. His skin is a lustrous black, and you realise they are actually scales. He wears a long, flowing robe of a dark purple, with a mysterious circular logo on the front, a crossroads of Redstone. His hair is messy, and is royal purple, and perched on his nose are some thin, almost invisible glasses. His eyes are also purple, like an Enderman's, but even more intelligent and calm, calculating. You turn to leave, but he pulls one of the many levers in his chair and the tunnel closes behind you.

"Nah, don't go. I thought we could have a chat." the Enderling says. He stands up, and walks towards you. Indeed, he is much taller than you.

"So, why are you here?" he asks, leaning on midair, it seems. However, there is a shimmer behind him.

"I got lost." You reply, instantly taking an excuse from the top of my head, from The Essential Guide For Griefers. "I thought this was my house."

He laughs, a cool, tinkling laugh, but filled with maliciousness. Becoming serious again, he answers:

"I wrote that book. So that excuse won't work."

You have to pause to pick your jaw up off the floor. Was this 5etharama?! His book was amazing! Quickly, you pick up your copy of his book, and open it to the front page.

"C-could you sign it for me?" you stutter. He smiles.

"Of course" he replies, bringing a quill out of a peculiar pouch on his belt. He signs 5etharama in spidery, sharp handwriting.

"And now, you really must come and see my house!" he says, running off. He runs into a side-room, and you follow, only to fall into a pit. You fall into a room, which is bare. 5etharama's voice echoes around.

"You cannot hide the fact that you are a Griefer. And I am particularly... Untrusting of Griefers. They spoil redstone."

But of course. 5eth is a redstoner, famed for his bizarre contraptions.

"But let's commence." he echoes. On the far wall a hidden door opens, with 5etharama standing there, twirling a wierd purple sword you've never seen before. On his toolbelt are several splash potions, and a small box with miniature levers. He grins manically, pulls out one of the splash potions, and throws it at his feet, instantly vanishing. You pull out your sword, slowly spinning on the spot. Suddenly, the ground beneath you lurches, and you realise the whole room is in motion. A hill is over there, whizzing towards you at a frightening pace. On it is a small purple sword, seemingly hovering in midair. Leaping up, you jump towards it, aiming to take down this tyrannical Enderling. What you didn't expect was for the mountain to suddenly collapse, leaving you lunging at midair. Colliding with the ground further behind with a bone-shattering crunch, you groan. A volley of arrows flies over your head, one hitting you in the leg. Grimacing in pain you stand up, to find 5etharama standing there, frowning.

"You're tougher than you look. No matter." he smiles. The purple sword in his hand shrinks to the size of a dagger.

"Goodbye"

And the last thing you see is the dagger swirling towards you.


	2. Chapter 2

**THE ONESHOT UPDATED!**

**SHOCK!**

**HORROR!**

**Yes, I got bored and started writing a Chapter 2 for this. Then I went overkill and wrote over 6000 words for this in just two chapters. I'm happy. :D**

**So yeah. This is now becoming an official story. Yay! I really like it since I get to be all creepy and malicious and ever so slightly evil...**

**:)**

**Onwards!**

Chapter 2

It's a shame the griefer had to die. Of course, he'll respawn and everything, and it is true I am untrusting of Griefers, but, well, I am sort of one myself. OK, OK, I work at Banhammer Keep and all that, but I do like a 'lil spot of Griefing here and there. Well, more trap-setting. I do quite like setting traps. In fact, my entire lab is a giant trap. It's like... What are they called? The Sirens from Greek Mythology. Yes, that's it. They lure people in with there beauty and fabrilliance, but when someone is lured in it just proves to be a trap and they want to eat your flesh and crunch your bones and stuff. All very gruesome. I do it to survive, but also to give off an aura of danger to this place. That griefer who was foolish enough to come and try to grief me must've been new to the server. All the others stay away, which is exactly what I want them to do. I like to practice my redstone in peace.

-/-

You wake up, back at the spawn. Bright glowstone glares in your face, and you look around at the spawn house. It is familiar, mainly made of quartz blocks but having some wood dispersed around as well. You get up, as you spawned sitting, and look out the door only to get a very unwelcome surprise.

"Well, look who's here! If it isn't our little griefer? How's it going, eh?" Cries out L0NE_WARR10R, with solosurvivor just behind him.

"Great." You mutter.

"So, how'd you end up back here?" Asked solosurvivor.

"Same to you, solojerkishsurvivor." You reply.

"You don't need to call me by my full title." He replies, ignoring the insult, "Just call me solo."

"Look, just tell me why you're here and sod off." You snap. They are suspiciously cheerful.

"Well..." Smiled L0NE_WARR10R, "We think you are completely screwed because we have... THIS!" He whips out a very innocent looking stick. You laugh.

"A stick? Wow."

"This is no ordinary stick, this is THE STICK OF THE BANNED!" He laughs, pulling an evil laugh pose.

"Seriously? I mean, like, stupid name level a thousand."

"However, one touch of this stick and you're instantly banned forever!"

Aw great. So these chumps can actually ban you now? Even still, you take some steps back.

"Thing is..." Says solo, "We're not allowed to use it yet... It will be in full working order in 24 hours. That's all you got. Then we're coming."

As realisation dawns upon you, you realise they are giving you a chance. A slim one, but a chance. You turn and run from the place, the two admin's failed attempts at maniacal laughter echoing behind you.

-/-

I was tinkering with my lab's self defence system. I would soon be installing an AI system, and so I wanted it to have the weapons to defend itself. The small parkour section at the start was improved, I had closed off the tunnel and made the jumping harder, but at the flick of a switch it could either completely disappear or merge together to make a bridge. Currently, I had it on the bridge setting, as I was setting up automatic-targeting dispensers on the ceiling. When that was done, I would need to go check on the obsidian generator, as I needed it to line my walls with. Then I would install wires to each of my appliances so that they could all be controlled from the same hub. So much to do, so little time. Everyone has their hobbies, but I never find enough time for mine.

-/-

Once outside the spawn building, you pick a random direction and run. Going past many biomes, your feet and arms still moving in a ridiculous fashion, you run past plains, forest, tundra, forest, taiga, desert, jungle, house, des-wait, house? Turning around and running back, you see a large, millionaire-mansion themed house, secluded next to a small pool of water hidden in the jungle. The house is made to look as if it is hanging from the trees, the owner has put up wooden planks to look like ropes, but this feature is purely decorative since, obviously, there's no gravity in Minecraft. Running up to the mansion, you suddenly stop running. Some lunch wouldn't go amiss. Looking up at the sky, you see that it is about midday, which means you are a quarter of the way through your time. Time for a bit of a break from running. You climb up the ladder that is hanging down from the house. You emerge in a glass corridor, and up ahead, clearly visible, is the workings of a simple dispenser trap. To counter this, you simply smash some of the glass, to around to it, and take out all of the arrows from the dispenser. You go back around to where you smashed the glass and simply walk over the pressure plate. The dispenser makes a sad little clicking sound. Continuing into the house, it becomes less and less glass and more and more jungle wood. Eventually you come up into a large, spacious portion of the building, which is obviously the main room. In the corner is some furnaces, in the other is some chests, and in the middle is some burning minecarts made to look like a fire, whilst not actually burning anything else. You walk straight over to the chests. One is labelled "naturey bleh" another "minerals" and another "useless junk that no one wants." You look in "naturey bleh" and find half a stack of cooked porkchops, several stacks of jungle saplings, some wheat and seeds and some eggs. You take all the pork and wheat, and some of the saplings. Jungle trees make good, instant defences. You look in minerals and take all their iron, gold and diamonds, leaving them only with lapis blocks. Finally, you look in the last chest. In there is loads of dirt, cobble, gravel, flint and generally rubbish. But there is also several stacks of redstone. Thinking it may be useful, you pick it up, then move over to the person's crating table. You craft yourself some armour, a diamond chestplate, iron leggings and boots, and a budder helmet. You love skydoesminecraft.

Then, in the chat, this opens up:

pinkgirlyknight joined the game

And then a feminine voice behind you tells you to stop, turn around and drop the sword you just crafted.

None of which you obey.

-/-

Right. Obsidian walls? Check. Auto-targeting dispensers? Check. Cameras? Check. New touchscreen to replace the old lever box? Check.

I really couldn't think of anything else I could do. So I decided to go and tinker with the AI system. I walked over to the large 3x3 cube that was AIMOS, which stood for Artificial Intelligence Modular Orbital Spacestation. The cube itself would be shot into space with an extremely large Hyperion Cannon that I had been developing. It contained, obviously, an AI system, but also contained a teleporter, a miniaturiser, a wireless redstone transmitter, a powerful telescope for scanning the ground with, and a small house which I could miniaturise myself into. It was the perfect space station, and would track any player's movements across the whole server. I miniaturised myself into the house, and went straight away to the maintenance floor. Then I realised I had missed a large part of any slightly evil person's space station: a Superlaser.

-/-

"I said, turn around, stop, and drop the weapon."

Thinking of a loophole, you turn around partially, but then stop, and drop the excess sticks you have from crafting the sword. In front of you is a person who is dressed head to toe in pink, girly knight armour. Just like her name. Duh.

"Do we have a joker here?" She said, stabbing her iron sword towards your chest. It bounces off the diamond armour without you even feeling it. She's slightly put out.

"You live in this place, with half a stack of diamonds in that chest over there, and walk around with no armour and an iron sword? Wow." You laugh.

She looks down, about to explain, but that's exactly want you wanted her to do. You sprint off, sprint-jump the crafting table and leap into one of the burning minecarts. Because of a bug, they don't catch you on fire, and you lean straight through the flame and punch out the block of wood underneath you. You and the minecart fall through the floor and hit the ground. The minecart absorbs all the damage, and as you leap out you hear a girlish "NO" scream above you. You smirk, and run off in the direction you were running before.

-/-

I think I may just about be ready for AIMOS lift off. Using a combination of command blocks and an upside-down beacon, I managed to make a beacon fire its beam downwards and used the command blocks to inflict Harming V on anyone within a ten block radius of where it struck, and Poison II on anyone within 28 blocks. Perfect. And now AIMOS was ready to be launched into the farthest reaches of the block height. The Hyperion Cannon was ready, over 100 blocks of TNT ready to be fired. Only problem: how to get the extremely heavy obsidian encased probe the 20 blocks to the cannon?

-/-

Back to running, you keep powering forward, sprint jumping as well, to give yourself as much distance from the admins as possible. Eventually you reach a forest and decide to stop. You look around for a good place to hide, and stop when you see a half chopped down tree. You walk over to it, and suddenly it dawns on you. You hear the sound of pistons.

-/-

After much heaving and shoving, I eventually got the satellite to the firing position. Then I stood back and activated my retractable roof.

-/-

As you walk into the clearing, the ground underneath you lurches. The sound of pistons greatly increases, and a gap opens up around the house. You leap for the safest place, the house, just as the sun sets. The clearing is just there to provide a clear space for a door! However, your mind is preoccupied, as a very menacing voice whispers in your ear:

Time's up. We're coming.

-/-

Whilst I watch the no less majestic sight of my "skylight" opening up, I realise a flashing light on my touchpad control unit. Camera 2 has detected unusual movement. I tap on it, and the house cam is unveiled. There, right there, is the most troublesome griefer I have ever seen. And I've seen quite a few in my time. I tapped the forced entry icon.

-/-

You look down into the large hole, and see what appears to be a obsidian cube, surrounded by an intricate tangle of wiring and TNT. Then, suddenly, a hole opens up underneath you, and you fall into a tunnel.

-/-

Believe me, I don not need a troublesome griefer to get in the way of my plans for the AIMOS probe. But I will enjoy killing him in my newly refurbished lab. I laughed as opened up the attack page.

-/-

You find yourself in a tunnel. On the floor are redstone lamps, lighting up in stripes in the way you presume you're supposed to go. You refuse, and sit down.

"I assure you, it would be much better for both of us if you went." A voice rings out. A screen flickers on, attached to a hovering probe. 5eth is sitting in an armchair, holding a hidden appliance that obviously contains a camera. He waves wildly, smiling.

"Hiya griefer! Short time no see." He says. You just look glum and stay sat down, whilst you are actually plotting.

"I know you're plotting, but it would be much better for both of us, especially me, if you went. In fact, if you went, you might stand a chance of surviving!"

That sounded good. But still you sit there.

"Ok, fine, Mr stubborn. Here we go!" He taps something, and behind you is the very loud sound of pistons, getting closer and louder until...

SMASH! The wall behind you leaps out, pushing you at very high velocity down the tunnel. You end up back in the room where you last confronted 5eth. Nothing seems to have changed. In fact, your items are still there, bobbing up and down. However, you do appear to have several broken bones, and your arm is bent in a way it shouldn't. Suddenly, you hear the sound of something being thrown behind you, and red particles fizz out from where you are sat. The healing potion heals you, but not in the most pleasant way, your arm snapping back into place painfully. You get up.

"I told you so! You do appear to have come at a rather delicate time. You see, I'm finishing up on a project I've had for a while, and,"

"Cut to the chase, redstoner." You say.

"Hmph. Fine." He pouted. "I'll be back in a second."

At that, the screen goes black. This gives you another opportunity to look around the room. You walk over to your stuff, and pick it up, riffling through your pack. There's the signed edition of The Essential Guide for Griefers, your axe, pickaxe and sword, several enchanted books and varying amounts of precious materials. You pull out your trusty old sword and look around the room. At first glance it seems the same as you last saw it, but closer inspection proves otherwise. In each corner is a curious device, which looks like a a small, long dispenser on a stick. They move slightly, tracking your movements. Suddenly, the screen flickers back to life.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I see you saw my cameras! Want so see how they work?" The screen his sadistically grinning face switches to a quarter split screen, each quarter showing a view from each corner. It's disconcerting seeing yourself move.

"I've upgraded this room. HD surround screens all around."

Pistons move, and the floor turns into a giant hole. Behind you is a blank, stone house. Then suddenly, you're standing back outside, or so it seems. The hole now has colour, showing what is now revealed to be a massive TNT cannon.

"Behold my might!" 5eth laughs. "Now, die."

The screens all go black. The floor flattens out again. Then, pistons open holes in the ceiling and out comes dispensers. But these dispensers all swivel around to face you.

"I could turn the auto-targeting systems on, but they haven't calibrated correctly yet and that would be too easy. So I'm taking control myself."

All at once, the dispensers start firing. You leap into the air to avoid the arrows that fire at your feet.

"Increasing targeting height... No, wait, I'll keep it down. Cannon 4 isn't quite working properly. Cannon 4, retract." 5eth mutters. Apparently he hasn't turned off his microphone. Looking around for the broken cannon, making full use of 5eth's slip up, you see one retracting, and run towards it as more arrows rain down around you. Leaping up, you grab onto the retreating dispenser.

"No, no, no, you're not supposed to do that! Increase targeting height by... Ten blocks. What do you mean, invalid height, you stupid machine!? It's not invalid, at that height... Oh. Snap." You can't resist laughing as 5eth's carefully planned plan all crashes down. The retreating dispenser carries you with it into a loading bay, where red lights are flashing. You go around, looking for some large tangle of wires that may be the main processing unit. All of the miniature wires all lead towards a large cluster which must be the main CPU. You walk towards it, but 5eth's voice rings out.

"Not so fast. It took me ages to make that chamber. I'm not letting you just wreck it just like that." He is standing on a walkway that goes up above the whole wire forest. He is displeased now, it's obvious.

-/-

That blasted little griefer! He's ruined all my plans, coming in at the crucial moment, just when I was going to make the perfect lab and...

_Let go._

"Snap. Don't come into this."

_Use your anger._

"Don't go all Star Wars on me, lightning snake."

_You know full well I'm SO much more that that._

"Yeah, ok, whatever. Don't come into this." I'm resilient, but it is hard. So hard not to let go to him.

_Just let go._

Maybe just a little bit? A little bit can't hurt?

But as soon as I let go, only a bit, he completely consumes me.

And this time is no different.

-/-

5eth is struggling. He appears to be talking to himself. No matter, you think, and make for the CPU. Then, suddenly, from behind you 5eth screams.

"NO!" You turn, startled, and see 5eth looking at you. But he hardly seems himself. His hair has changed to blue, and his eyes are bright neon blue, staring out like twin searchlights. Suddenly, his arms become encased in a wreath of lightning, and lightning strikes down from the heavens, striking his suddenly outstretched hands. He laughs, evilly, but his voice is different, like two people are talking. Scared, you turn and run for the CPU, but you are suddenly frozen. 5eth taps you on the shoulder. His hand is icy, cold. You turn, against your will. He is staring at you with those bright blue eyes, head cocked to the side. Then, he punches you in the face. Hard. Your nose cracks, and blood spurts out. Then, 5eth keels over, gripping his head in seeming agony.

"NO! GO AWAY!" He screams, genuinely terrified. Despite him being your obvious enemy you lean over, having regained control of your limbs, and grab one of his healing potions from his hip. You splash it down at your feet. 5eth is lying on the floor, holding his head.

"Neon... Blue... Potion..." He says to you. You look at him. His eyes are wide, purple again. Pleading. You look down at his belt, and see the said potion. "Please... I'm... Sorry for... What I did... I will... Explain...potion..." His eyes fade closed, then open again, neon blue. It was kinda creepy the way they did that. Then, 5eth reaches out, and grabs you by the throat. His long Ender-fingers wrap all the way around, choking you. Quickly, panicking, you grab the neon potion, and splash it over him. You stay awake for long enough to see his eyes fade back to purple, then you pass out.

-/-

He's gone. The griefer did it. He's passed out, lying on the ground next to me. It has been so long since the snake came... I haven't had enough of my special potions. I would need to take them more regularly. I looked at the griefer again, so grateful to him. There are bruises around his neck, from where I-he strangled him. Smiling, I sit up, looking at the area around me. None of my precious redstone was ruined. Good. I look over at the griefer again. I should help him. He did save my life, after all. I picked him up, slung him over my shoulder, and took him to my little-used sleeping area.

-/-

You wake up, and are looking up at a wooden ceiling, red quilt drawn all the way up to your neck, but not in a restricting way. You sit up, and at the foot of the bed is the Enderling that yesterday tried to kill you. He is sitting on a chair, clutching a glass bottle of some potion, head down, apparently sleeping. The second you get up out of the bed to sneak out, he wakes up.

"Morning, sleepyhead." He said, but not in his usually cheerful way.

"You tried to kill me yesterday." You reply.

"No! Well, yes, but... No. Actually... Yes. And you saved my life. And for that I'm forever indebted to you."

Confused, you sit down again.

"I have a lot to explain." Sighed 5eth. "Better get started."


	3. Chapter 3

**So... Many... Words...**

Chapter 3

"It was a dark and stormy night. I know lots of stories start like that, but this really was. I had been tinkering with redstone, but one of my appliances needed a sapling, I can't remember why but I think it was a tree farm. Despite searching through many chests, I could not find a sapling anywhere. I had to go outside. I gathered up my cloak around me, pulled up my hood and went outside. Grimacing under the slight writing of the rain, as I am part Enderman, I walked over to one of the trees in the wood and cut it down with my hatchet, keeping an eye out for stray mobs. Then, I sat down in the shelter of the leaves and waited for a sapling to fall. Eventually a sapling fell, hitting me on the head. I picked it up and put it in my inventory pouch, heading back to the small house that I'm sure you know isn't just a house. But that night an incredible coincidence happened; lightning struck the very block I was standing on. I yelped, but the pain of the fire was nothing compared to the pain I felt in my mind. In my mind's eye, which I might add is very detailed, I saw a writhing neon blue snake. Then, it vanished. I found my way back to the house without encountering any mobs, but in a glass pane I saw that my eyes were bright, neon blue. I managed to fight him off that day, but from then I have always had that snake in my mind, not exactly a spirit but another conscience, one bent on destruction. I have never been quite the same since that day, always more destructive, more deadly."

The griefer interrupts, saying: "This conscience, does it have a name?"

"Yes." I smile. "Certus."

-/-

5eth is quite peculiar. You do think it it a strange story, but believe it. You've seen what this Certus can do. In a way, you feel a bit sorry for the unfortunate Redstoner. However, before you can offer any encouragement, he stands up with a swish of his cloak.

"Certus is far from the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Because of his... Powers, I can do certain quite cool things." He smiles, then suddenly, in a shower of blue sparks, he has vanished. Then he taps you on the shoulder. You turn around, and he is still smiling, but shyly now.

"I've never shown anyone that before." He says, looking at his feet. But all you can think if is how useful that would be in Griefing.

"That would be so useful in Griefing!" You exclaim. He looks up, startled. Then thinks.

"Yes, it would be rather, wouldn't it?" He walks to the door, the turns to you.

"Thank you once again. I really need to get back to my redstoning, the skylight is still open and AIMOS really needs to be launched. You're welcome to stay, and there are parts of this lab even I haven't fully explored. It's made in a stronghold, see, and some of the books are simply priceless." He says. Then, in a shower of blue sparks, he has gone. Priceless books? You think.

-/-

Ouch.

I really need to fine-tune that teleporting.

The griefer will stay. I'm sure of it. I really am thankful to him, and don't care how many books he takes. Pretty much all of them are brain-dull boring anyway. I saw a 1000-page volume on rain and thunderstorms. Seriously? Anyway, AIMOS is ready for launch. I checked all of the stats on my touchpad, making sure that all programs and backup emergency programs are online, checking all the pistons on the emergency floodgates are in full working order, that there are no gaps in AIMOS's protective obsidian casing. Finally, I check that all the priming circuits for the TNT are all operational. Then, and only then, am I ready for launch. I have hooked up all the systems to one simple lever, to keep it old fashioned. My hand is on the lever, just about to pull it, when a shout rings out.

"What the NETHER is this squidload?!" Shrieks solosurvivor.

I sigh. Not these two goons. I walk over to the giant crater that holds the Hyperion cannon.

"It's a Hyperion cannon. Ever seen one before?" I say, putting on my totally-relaxed-slightly-evil-genius face.

"That is a dirttonne of TNT. What's it all for?" Says L0NE_WARR10R.

"It's my latest plan for server-wide domination." I smile sweetly. Then, I teleport behind them, and tap them both on the shoulder. "And you're ruining it."

"Server wide domination? I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Says solo.

"Well duh, I was joking, Einstein. But I am at the end of a very important project."

"One that involves this much TNT?"

"Yes." I say, beginning to get annoyed. "Now run along, I need to finish it."

"Ah. Um, just before we go, have you seen a suspicious running player?" Asked L0NE_WARR10R.

"No, can't say I have." I said, getting pretty annoyed with these ignorant buffoons.

"Ah well. Just keep an eye out. Bye then, 5eth."

Without replying, I turn, teleport, and pull the lever.

-/-

You are exploring the stronghold, following the winding corridors, but making sure you know the way back. You are scraping out a map on a piece of paper with a chicken feather and an ink sac. Already it is hopelessly complicated, but you haven't even escaped the actual redstone-covered part of the lab yet; there are still redstone lamps on the ceiling. Suddenly, the lamps overhead all flicker out, one by one. 5eth's voice rings out, saying:

"I apologise for the lack of lighting. All power is being redirected to the launching of me, AIMOS, Artificial Intelligence Modular Orbital Satellite."

Wondering what that was all about, you continue on through the stronghold, map in hand, still drawing.

-/-

Eesh. That whole "me, AIMOS, the artificial intelligence blah blah blah" is really gonna get on my nerves. I must take that all out. And change its voice. However, I was more interested in the Hyperion Cannon at the moment. Layer upon layer of TNT was being lit, flashing white. Pistons pushed each primed price into a water stream, which carried it down into one central position. Over 100 blocks of TNT were all condensed into a small, 3x3 area, under the AIMOS probe. Perfect.

-/-

Just when you get into the undeveloped part of the stronghold, a great KABOOM rings out, and the ground shakes. TNT? You think. Is that the only way to launch a Satellite 5eth?

-/-

The AIMOS probe shoots into the sky, cube tumbling over itself again and again. Eventually, it goes out too far for me to see.

"Note to self;" I say, and my touchpad automatically records it. "Check up on the AIMOS probe when it gets to optimum height." When AIMOS reaches optimum height, about 1500 blocks high, when its momentum from the cannon falters, it will shed its obsidian protection. It will fold out two fins, which look a bit like wings, and "catch" the wireless redstone binary sent up from the lab. It will also fold out a long stalk, pointing down to the Mainland, which transmits orders back down to the lab. All of it is fitted into a 3x3 cube. Quite good, though I do say so myself. When that happens, it will automatically sync with the lab's already existing computer defence system, gaining full control without me having to do anything. Then, my new modified glasses will sync with the touchpad and with AIMOS, connecting all control devices so I can control anything from anything. Normally, AIMOS controls everything, but the touchpad can override its decisions in case something goes wrong, and that only responds to my touch. So, basically, only I or AIMOS can control Crosswire Labs.

-/-

Finally, you find a library in the stronghold that hasn't been looted yet. It is old and cold, wooden floor creaking under your every footfall. The bookshelves stand like guardians, stern and standing to attention. A balcony runs around the whole of the roughly square room, with wooden fences stopping anyone up there from falling off. Slicing your way through the many cobwebs, you pick a book at random and look at the cover. The cover is old and worn, made of leather, tattered at the edges. Slightly faded gold lettering on the front grandly proclaims:

All you Need to Know About

PLUGINS for Servers!

Shrugging, you put it in your pack, and pick up 5 other books at random on the shelves, and then make your way back to the Lab.

-/-

Now that AIMOS is launched, I am stuck for what to do. There is always a period between projects where I just can't think what to do. And so, I make a small new program for my Touchpad. I make a small 3D car in a modelling program I made, then make parts of a racetrack. Some simple programming later, I am able to control the car, driving it around randomly generated racetracks. I make some other cars and give them simple AI, then race them. It's quite fun, and I'm utterly immersed in playing and programming the game. Then the touchpad rings, saying in my voice:

"Check up on the AIMOS probe."

I sigh, saving and closing the racing program. The AIMOS probe must be in optimum position. I scrawl a short note on a piece of paper and leave it on a bench in my Lab's main room. Then, I navigate to the "teleports" page on my touchpad, and touch the AIMOS button.

-/-

Finally, you get back to the main hub of the Lab. 5eth really has done well with the place. The main room is a massive natural cave, with stone stalactites reaching down from the ceiling. At the tip of each of these is a redstone lamp, obviously toggle able with some mechanism. The whole room is constantly in motion, a minecart track is running around, carrying pigs and activating several things at it navigates jumps and incredible bends in the rails. Several workbenches are around, pieces of half-finished projects and tools scattered about on them. One catches your eye in particular, and as you walk over to it you see it is an old, worn map with several labels on it. One labels your location, with the name "Crosswire Labs," another labels the spawn, and several others are scattered around, labelling testificate villages, player villages and large player houses. As you are admiring the map, a small object buzzes over your head. You look up, and straight into the orange eye of a redstone robot. It has two roughly circular "wings" with helicopter blades in them, and a main body holding the eye and, presumably, control circuits as well. A small claw is attached to the back. Its eye extends on a stalk, observing you. Then, it retracts it and buzzes away, apparently having some other important job to do. You shrug, and look back down at the map. After some time observing it, and attempting to memorise it, you leave it and go inspect some other bizarre contraptions.

You walk over to a large glass ball. Inside it is some grass, and every so often a pig spawns. As soon as it does, a piston pushes it into a water conveyer, which pushes it onto a powered rail. When one of the several minecarts on the circuit of rails comes by, it picks up the pig and takes it on the ride of its life. Running along, you follow a pig in one of the minecarts. At the end of the track, the pig is ejected onto another water conveyer, which carries it down to a lava blade, which cooks it whilst killing it. The cooked meat collects in a chest. You assume that is 5eth's only food source, but just around the corner of the pig butchering facility is a large automatic farm. Dispensers plant the seeds, and a robotic eye watches them. Presumably, when most of the crops have grown, they will be harvested in some way. Sure enough, as most of the crops have grown, a redstone lane lights up and at the top of the farm water pours out, splashed out by a dispenser and instantly scooped back in again, allowing a trickle of water to flow down, destroying the crops and putting them into another chest.

You are admiring another redstone contraption, one which has seemingly no use but to swing miniature chests back and forth across some animated monkeys, when a zap sounds behind you. 5eth is there, looking flustered.

"Do you have any redstone?" He asks. "An incredibly important timer circuit in the AIMOS probe isn't correctly configured, meaning the auto-entry to the house by intruders happens instantly instead of them having time to..."

"Don't sweat it." You say, rummaging through your bag. He looks at you oddly.

"Endermen don't sweat! Duh, we're harmed by water. It's a simple chemical reaction which binds the chemicals in obsidian with the chemicals in water, creating NaH3O2, a corrosive acid."

You have a bit of a brainache after all of that. "You," you say, tossing him some redstone, "aren't an enderman."

"It seems awfully early for you to be making judging remarks about my parentage. For you information, my mother was an Enderwoman, and I grew up in the End, so there." And with that, he pushed a button on his touchpad, and was gone, with a sharp *crack,* leaving you to wonder what that was all about.

-/-

I really need to get out of that habit. When I'm flustered, I tend to say a lot of technical jargon about various things. It helps me reprocess information, hearing it again, allowing me to make better decisions about things. I also start talking in an incredibly British accent, heightening my already slightly British one. Strange. Anyway, crafting some more repeaters in the AIMOS house, I venture out again to the massive AIMOS mainframe, looking massive from my perspective even when it was only two blocks tall. Massive arches of stone create a virtual cathedral of redstone, and the lighting is always changing as the magical dust changes state constantly. I walk along the 2 block wide cobblestone slab walkway, making my way past the binary-to-RCL converter, which converts binary ons and offs to a readable language for the CPU. The data from the lab is sent up in "packets," giving nearly constant data which is all saved into AIMOS's massive memory deck. Any urgent messages are sent up straight away, bypassing the slow decoder right beside the wireless receiver inputs and going straight to a special, no-traffic converter right by the main AI storage. Knowing my way around, I make for the "Decoy Defence Systems" area, and look for the giant redstone repeater clock. All of the things that need a time delay in this area of AIMOS all tap in to this one, but the one that made the forced entry to Crosswire Labs, in other words, the hole in the floor opener, wasn't delaying. It seemed I had accidentally hooked up the input to the clock to the output instead of the clock itself. I managed to quickly fix it, and then went back to fixing other bugs elsewhere. There were very many, and I stayed up very late to fix them all. But there was a moment, when I could safely say, it was finished. I took a step back and admired my handiwork, work of over a year. Though AIMOS was receiving data, it wasn't sending it, that was the job of the AI, which I hadn't activated yet. But, with a flick of a switch, I did.

"Hello 5etharama." Said AIMOS.

"Hello AIMOS." I said, grinning. I was now the most powerful person on the server.

**Evil mwahaha. I can now be completely super-powerful on an imaginary server. :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of Crosswire! :P Yes, we have another chapter that I am surprised how long it is... In other news, I have a new beta! 'Tis Bowties, and she _isn't_ the reason this chapter came out so late. I just couldn't be bothered to remove her comments :P So, enjoy a chapter!**

You have been looking at redstone contraptions for a while now, and fancy a break. You walk back over to the pig extermination area and take out some cooked pork, eating it as a pork-storm is created in your loud eating methods. Looking around for something else to do, your eyes alight on a door you didn't see before. A sign placed above it proudly proclaims that it is the inspiration room. You walk over and take a look inside. Through the door is a marble corridor, leading down into a plush room. Scattered about are white chairs, on a white carpeted floor. Whiteboards are scattered around the marble walls, with diagrams scrawled on them. Looking up, you see a glass pane roof. Behind it is a spectacular array of redstone, seemingly only created for entertainment. Small crawling robots battle each other in one corner, random fireworks launch in another, creating a spectacular array of colour bursts. Another corner contains a small robot which walks around randomly, trailing various colours behind it. Every minute water flows down, clearing it and making the robot restart its endless journey. The whole room is quite relaxing, the various colour-making appliances in the ceiling contrast amazingly with the whiteness underneath. You see how 5eth can get inspiration from this room. You sit on a woollen sack, seemingly filled with feathers, and watch the ceiling for a bit.

A while later a voice rings out, similar to 5eth's but not the same, with a metallic quality.

"The AIMOS probe's AI has been activated. Any intruders will be eliminated."

That makes you slightly worried. Then, the voice rings out again;

"Intruder detected: Location: Not programmed. Error: No intruder pods detected near intruder's location."

You realise that the voice is talking about you! 5eth must have forgotten to program you into this computer's programming. You decide that it might be best to stay in this room.

-/-

I return to the Lab. AIMOS is rattling on about various things, but then one thing catches my ear; he's detected an intruder! I listen to the update.

"Location: Not programmed"

That's only to be expected. AIMOS is a work in progress, there are plenty of rooms in my Lab that I haven't programmed in, either because I was too lazy or because I forgot about them. The next piece of information doesn't surprise me either; how can I expect to give defended to a room I forgot about? But then a sudden thought hits me. Did I remember to program the griefer into the mainframe? Realising I haven't, I panic just a slight bit.

"Defence systems should be confused by me not programming the room for a while, but drones will begin a perimeter sweep at some point." I mutter to myself, opening up my touchpad.

"Activate locater for subject 001." I say to it. A compass pops up, pointing towards the main lab room. In there, a flying orange-eyed redbot flies up to me. I recognise it as a Crosswire AS-V6. It has a simple AI core, its orange eye percepts distance and it can navigate itself around when on show mode, which is made to make it fly around and generally look like it's doing something even if it isn't. Now it is coming purposefully towards me.

"The Intruder is in an uncharted room. Estimated location: x:-106,099 y:+157 z:23" it says in a high-pitched voice. It must have an old unmodified note block voice box.

"AIMOS, he isn't an intruder. All units, stand down. Halt all searches. When I find the person, insert his data into the "safe" file." I say. The robot nods an affirmative and flies off again, and the various scout robots around all return to their barracks. Within a matter of minutes, the only sound that can be heard is the gentle humming of redstone, inaudible to human ears, and the sound of my footsteps as I search the Lab.

-/-

"Threat has been neutralised. All units stand down." Says the computer. You heave a sigh of relief at the good news. You relax in the plush chairs for a small while longer, but soon get up. The room is quite boring, and not very inspiring to you. You walk out the door again, and it slides smoothly shut behind you, leaving no trace of the room that you just left. 5eth is walking around, inspecting some of his creations. He looks over to you and waves. You walk over.

"Whaddaya been doing?" He asks.

"Oh, I've just been in a room. Over that way." You say, pointing to the general direction of the room. "It was called the inspiration room." 5eth jumps. He turns to you and pushes his glasses up his nose.

"The inspiration room? I've been looking for that. Do you think you could remember where it was?" He inquires.

"Probably." You shrug, walking back to it. You dodge around various arches of redstone, 5eth following behind. You walk up to where the door was, but it has gone.

"It was here..." You wonder.

"Lemme see." Says the redstoner. You expect him to pull out some redstone door-opener, but instead he pulls out a purple pickaxe and smashes down the wall. He ducks through the small hole and you hear him muttering inside. He emerges again and pulls out a flat, black device, which he taps, and it comes to life. He taps some white dots on the tablet, and then pushes a final one. The door slides smoothly open. He looks at you and smiles.

"Thanks for finding that. I've been looking for it. Now, if you'll excuse me," he says, swirling into the door, "I need some inspiration." He taps the black slab again and the door slides smoothly shut.

-/-

I step into the cool, familiar, but long forgotten inspiration room. I made it almost when I had moved into the lab, and so it is quite old redstone tech. I had installed a proximity detector and a randomiser, to try to make a constantly moving lab and confuse intruders. Thing is, it just kept confusing me, so I destroyed it. Even still, every so often I find a room that I hadn't erased the randomisers from, and had a "new" addition to my lab. Now I could just control them all from my touchpad. However, the inspiration room was one room I couldn't find at all, but often wanted to. And now that griefer found it. He keeps being useful, but he's not exactly a guest, just tolerated. I'll have to turf him out soon. That makes me a bit sad, but I know how griefers are. They're the entire reason that I built the entire AIMOS probe; a safe place to practice redstone.

I walk into the familiar room. Memories spring up of ideas that were born in here. Though it seems like an ordinary room, maybe with some fancy stuff in the ceiling, it isn't. I have a tunnel which goes straight down into the void, through a glitched lava lake. Void dust is sucked up from there and the small bits get injected straight into the room. Larger pieces are liquified and put in bottles. Void dust is special, it is pure ideas. The particles float around the room, invisible to the naked eye, and whenever several touch me at once they spark an idea. The liquefied void dust is a potent nerve agent, it overloads the brain with information, not killing but making the target mentally crippled beyond repair.

I sat down in my favorite chair, directly under the randomly generated screen. I looked up at the multicoloured swirl, enjoying the sensation of ideas flooding inside my head. Several useless ones came in. One was an idea for a novel, another a flavor combination, another for a portable seat. I closed my eyes and leaned back. A cleaning device. A grammatical rule for an unknown language. A new way of navigating around my touchpad. That one I store away in the reaches of mind, keeping the idea for later. And then suddenly, I have a masterstroke; a brilliant idea, a eureka moment, call it what you will. The admins had mentioned a while ago that they had created a new weapon; the Stick of the Banned. When I had heard of it for the first time I remember thinking it was a stupid name. But now I realized it was just what I need. The unique coding into the world itself was something I couldn't make in any redstone contraption, the ability to completely expel a player from the server. If it could ban a player, couldn't it ban an entity? Or even... An alternate conscience?

-/-

You decide to go mining. There doesn't appear to be any actual need to go, since 5eth has seemingly infinite amounts of redstone, but you think it would make a nice change to just looking at the slightly repetitive redstone contraptions. You pull out a diamond pickaxe with Looting III, Unbreaking X and Efficiency IV, and go off to look for the mineshaft. You pick a side corridor, branching out from the main lab, and walk down it. A small wheeled redstone mech zips past you. That's the thing about this place, you wonder. It's always in motion. There never seems to be enough time to actually rest. Shrugging it off, you turn a corner and have to stop rapidly to keep yourself from falling down a massive hole. The said hole is about fifty by forty blocks wide, and goes straight down to bedrock. However, you look again, and realize it doesn't just go _to_ bedrock, it goes straight _through_ bedrock.

Several caves branch out from the massive hole, reaching out into the unknown. Indentations int the walls show where ores were and are now mined out. The whole cave is abuzz with activity, large transporter robots carry up massive loads of various minerals from several floating "docks." Smaller, hovering robots take loads from the tunnels and put them into chests on the docks. A massive cargo hauler looms above you, having just unloaded its load it is floating back down to pick up more ores. As it floats past you, you leap onto its back. On board there are a scatter of chests, and some robotic arms which obviously load and unload them. You go to the open back of the robot and sit down, legs dangling perilously over the edge. The hole really is massive, and below you lies the surest death in Minecraftia: the Void. No one really knows why it is so sure a death, but even those just near it or even just look at it often feel dizzy. Remembering this, you quickly look away.

The cargo hauler has nearly reached its destination. The wooden docks are below you, and you jump down onto the busy area. Robots are all over the place, preparing to load the hauler. Some robots are literally chests on legs with simple grabbers, others are a ball with half a dozen robotic arms, on a stalk with a main wheel base at the end of it. You don't stop to see the impending chaos and sprint off to the tunnel.

-/-

I find an old room in the stronghold, which branches off from my Lab, and place down some wood in a roughly table-like fashion. I place some lamps around, and clear out all the cobwebs and moss. Whilst doing so I find an old chest which I hadn't seen before, covered in vines. Inside is average dungeon loot, a budder apple, a cat music disc, an iron sword and an Ender pearl. I pick up the small, marble-like pearl and roll it around between my fingers. I put it into my alchemy bag. Ender pearls are needed for eyes of Ender, which are needed for potions of invisibility. I pick up the budder apple as well.

I unroll the map of the server I brought with me, and put it on the table. Crosswire labs is labelled, in the far North and slightly East. At the center is the spawn, and scattered around are major player villages, testificate villages and large houses. I also have the secret base of the OPs labelled. That's what I am interested in. It is in a desert biome, under a desert temple. I know that because I spent weeks tracking them on their very easy to follow trail. Their base is very unorganized half finished rooms filled with unsorted chests stretch out almost as far as Crosswire Lab's labyrinth. However, the last time I was there was several months ago, and they are bound to have changed it by now, but probably for the worse. They don't seem to be the type to be organised enough to actually move their base, so it's unlikely their location has changed. I took out an old computer from my backpack, an old Crosswire RC-V5, and placed it down. The black box had a screen on the front at the top left, and the circuitry inside was very complex, but it's concept was actually quite simple. It did have an awful lot of memory though, and plenty of other plugs which could be wired to various outputs. I plugged one in to a wireless sender and typed in the special coded transmission to activate a certain probe.

-/-

Miles away from that place, a long forgotten redstone robot boots up. It's orange eye glows to life, revealing the dark room it is encased in. Its sound inputs detect faint murmurings. It follows pre-programmed code, pulling out a small, wooden pickaxe, and batters away at the block in front of it. It comes out in to a sort of grand area, a chipped fountain in the middle of the room babbling away. Nonetheless, this robot is uninterested in that, and roams the rooms, updating the internal map in its brain, the map of the admin's house. When it is sure it has done that, another being takes control. It guides it to a hallway of levers, then commands it to batter through the wall, and replace the blocks behind it. Once hidden inside the dimly lit room, the other being commands it to go into a corner and stretch out redstone outputs to the very simple password-locked door. Then the commands stop coming, so the robot camouflages again, turning into a normal cobblestone block, waiting for its next command.

-/-

Right, now for making a plan of attack. The RC-V5 is just finishing off printing out a map of the admin's base. It only had a simple proximity detector eye, so I don't have any pictures, but I can imagine what it looks like. Catastrophic. The printer finishes off, and a black-and-white floor plan of the base comes out. I get an ink sac and a feather, and draw out various plans. Pretty soon it becomes clear; I can't do this alone. The probe in the base doesn't have enough power to hack the redstone lock, however simple it may be. I hate to admit it, but I need the griefer again.

-/-

Once inside the main cave, you look around for some ores. However, the miner-bots have taken out every piece, down to the last block of coal. Wondering how they actually get to unexploited veins, one zips past at extremely high speed. Realising the only way to get there is to get there fast, you wait for the next one to come. You are at the end of a very long tunnel, and pretty soon the loud humming of one of the engines indicates one is coming your way. Sure enough, one comes around the far corner and you leap up, grabbing on to its stabilising fins. The robot buzzes, annoyed, and shakes around, but you grimace and hold on. The robot seems to resign itself to its fate, and zips on. Occasionally it swerves, flinging you off to one side with a stomach-churning lurch, and the wind blows in your face as it goes straight over a lava-filled ravine. Suddenly, it swerves left, turning round, and your boots scrape along the wall. Then, just after, it swerves straight up, spiralling around. The robot lets off a high-pitched squeal, seemingly enjoying the roller-coaster ride, as it plummets straight down again. Then, it begins to slow down. It stops at an abandoned mineshaft, and you drop down. You say a thank you to the robot, and it nods then a diamond pickaxe folds out and it goes off to find ores.

You pull out your own diamond pickaxe and make sure you have your trusty sword nearby. The robots don't seem to keen on placing torches. You place one of your own, to mark the exit, and walk off, placing torches as you go. You turn a corner and mine out some coal in the floor, and some iron in he wall. The next corner stretches out over a small lava lake, old, rotting wooden supports holding it up perilously. You walk across it, the wooden floor creaking below you, and then suddenly hear the fwit-thunk of an arrow being launched. The said arrow is imbedded in the wooden support in front of you, and suddenly the support snaps. The whole bridge lurches dangerously, and you steady yourself against another pillar, but that one snaps as well. Another arrow embeds itself in the rock behind you, and you sprint jump to the edge of the mineshaft. You just make it, but the opposite force on the bridge tips it over the edge, and it collapses into the lava below with a final sad creak. The skeleton appears to be out of range, as no more arrows are flying towards you. You decide it might be time to go back, despite the lightness in your pack. You make your way back to the entrance and wait for a redstone robot to come by.

-/-

I teleport back to the Lab and begin looking for the griefer again. He main room really is spectacular, robots buzzing around, navigating through a technological jungle of wires and mechanisms. I could safely say, if given any object in the entire Lab, I could identify it within 3-4 minutes. The main room is massive, about 50 blocks long and 30 wide, and 20 tall. I grab a rope ladder that hangs down from the ceiling, hidden in a large tangle of wires, and climb up into the old camera room. Old, dusty screens give video playback from several key positions in the Lab. One shows the entrance outside, another shows the small parkour course that you come in to when you come down the ladder. The one that shows the mine catches my eye, though. A flash of unpredicted movement is there, getting on to one of the massive cargo haulers. That makes me laugh.

"He's been mining. Nice."

I make my way down the rope ladder, leaping down the last few rungs, and stride off towards the mine.

-/-

You come up from the mine on the cargo hauler, to see 5eth leaning against a wall, waiting.

"I need a hand with something. The admins have... Something I need. You in?" He says.

"A chance to get back on those jerks? Course I'm in." You reply. It will be good to finally get beacon on the players that made your life so hard before.

"Right, let's get prepared. We'll need food, weapons and muchas redstone. We'll also need stuff for going undercover and being generally boss-like, such as rope for climbing, sticky bombs for attaching to doors and splash potions for epic outros and fighting moves. Let's do it."


End file.
